Last year when I visited Philadelphia, I stopped by at Madalynne studio to take a private bra sewing lesson. We started with Merckwaerdigh BHS10-D (size 75A), but due to lack of time, were unable to finish. Since coming back to Japan, I completely forgot about this UFO (UnFinished Objects) and did not pick it up until after close to a year had passed! I am happy that I’m done with the project now but this is one item I won’t be able to wear. It does not fit me at all. I can’t lie, I had some doubts when I originally decided on making an underwire bra. I have not worn bra with underwire for almost 10 years. I have been wearing soft bras (this, this and this) without wire or camisole that comes with bra cups. I said good bye to underwire bras a long time ago when I realized that I don’t have big enough boobs :(……. but looking at beautiful bras that Novita makes, I decided to give it a go.

I had to pull out my old home sewing machine since the instructions called for zigzag stitches which my industrial sewing machine does not offer. I had hard time adjusting the thread tension and some stitches look wonky. The wire channel installment was easier than I thought. I had to cut mine so it fit the bra size. I bought a bra kit from Merckwaerdigh on etsy, and small notions like wire, hook and eye and sliders at the Japanese site Jimura.
Besides some uneven stitches, the bra looks pretty; however, when it is on my body, the underwire moves around and the cup looks flat on my chest. I might need a bra cup inserted.
Here is a short video showing my bra.
ワイヤー入りブラを作りました。
型紙はこちらから。
サイズは75Aです。
ランジェリー作りは少しの生地で出来るので楽しいです。
ただ、せっかく作ったのに、サイズが全く合いませんでした。
ワイヤー入りが合わないのかも。残念!








The more I work with Kimono fabric, the more comfortable and the faster I get with it. Practice makes perfect! This mint green one was particularly fun since the colors are so vibrant. I had a roll of kimono fabric (tanmono) to start with. First, I look through meters of fabric to see where the prints are and try to find the matching print. Then I connected the matching print just like you match stripes or plaid. The width of the kimono fabrics are usually narrow like 36-38cm (more
These solid color dresses were much easier required less thinking. Still, there was some stripes going on so I cut carefully not to disturb the stripes.
Of all six dresses, I am most drawn to this cream color one. The silk is so soft and drapes beautifully. For this one, I could not find the perfect print match, but still went for similar print so that you can see the continuity. You can see the picture above that the pink (orange?) clouds matches but the purple cloud right above does not. Sometimes you just have to make the decision based on which mismatch is less noticable. You can see more of my kimono upcycling projects 
At the beginning of the Summer, I purged some of the clothes in my closet. That purge included ridding some clothes I hand made in the past like 


{worn with